Mid-January.
The faint light of early morning was hazy, like peeking at the sky through the hem of a girl's skirt— even the blue sky and white clouds carried a hint of softness.
Before the flower shop on Monlis Street opened for the day, Nora arrived early and distributed this week's wages to the two employees who had joined the shop not long ago.
The two ordinary-looking girls with rather unremarkable figures happily accepted their 20 silver coins. After bowing sincerely in thanks, one hurried off to clean the shop while the other went to open the doors, beginning a new day of work.
Nora watched them with a gentle smile, as if seeing her own self from a few months ago.
But now, everything was naturally different.
Over the past ten days or so, Nora had gradually recruited more than a dozen employees in both the City of Chaos and the Royal Capital. Most of them were young girls with pitiful backgrounds or poor families.
The flower shop and bar in the City of Chaos, as well as the flower shop on the first floor, the café on the second floor, and the mahjong room on the third floor of the Royal Capital shop, all required these new employees to help with operations.
And today marked the day these two girls in the Royal Capital flower shop had just completed their first full week of work.
After giving them a few brief reminders, Nora went up to the second floor, greeted several noble ladies from nearby shops who had come for morning tea, and then headed to the fourth floor.
Ron André had just finished bathing and had begun eating breakfast. Nora quietly sat down beside him.
The two chatted casually for a while. Ron mentioned his plans for the day—he intended to visit Chaos City Magic Academy to check on Harper's latest research progress on Scalevine.
After that, he planned to stop by the laboratory newly funded by Royal Capital Magic Academy, where he would hand over some plants for them to study freely.
"Want to come with me?" Ron asked after finishing breakfast, lightly pinching Nora's small nose.
"No, I won't~ Didn't I already tell the Boss yesterday?" Nora shook her head. As she stood up to tidy the dishes on the table, she spoke softly, "Recently, I'll stay here and follow Mr. Guy while discussing bulk plant sales with customers."
"Once I learn how to handle these things myself, we won't have to trouble Mr. Guy with such small matters anymore. I'll be able to share some of the Boss's workload."
"Then do your best," Ron said, patting Nora's little head before heading downstairs. "Remember to carry the doll. If anything happens, contact me immediately."
"Mhm!"
…
Ron returned to the City of Chaos through the storage room passage. After briefly responding to the hurried greetings of the two shop assistants, he left the flower shop and boarded a carriage heading to Harper's laboratory.
By mid-January, although the City of Chaos was still cold, the harshest wave of winter winds had already retreated northward. It was a completely different scene compared to the Royal Capital, which was still blanketed in snow.
Further north at the three great passes—Zhenbei Pass, Bestial Abyss Gate, and Snowfall Gate—layers of snow and frost buried countless bones. After launching one final, futile, and largely symbolic charge, the orc tribes had finally declared defeat in the war.
Although they had only withdrawn their camps by a few miles, the human armies who had fought along the border for decades understood clearly that this year's winter war had entered its closing stage.
This was much earlier than usual—normally, it would only gradually end near the end of January.
There were many reasons behind this.
One of them was naturally related to the new explosive potion.
Because of this, in addition to purchasing large quantities of the new explosive potion jointly produced by the three southern earls, the military department had also instructed the laboratory of Royal Capital Magic Academy to quickly research similar explosive potions using the Crimson-Gold Chrysanthemum.
After all, although those three earls belonged to the Empire, the authorization for producing the potion had been granted by Chaos City Magic Academy.
The Empire could not allow itself to remain constrained in this matter forever.
In recent days, after several major upheavals in the Royal Capital, the selection list for the Royal Capital First Military Academy had finally been released. This batch of students had at last followed their instructors northward to experience the closing atmosphere of the winter war.
Ron, as an honorary student, had also received an invitation.
But of course, he politely declined.
Originally, he had considered taking the opportunity to open another flower shop in the northern region, then connecting it through a spatial passage.
That way, a north–south route linking the City of Chaos — Royal Capital — Northern Border would be established.
There was a certain sense of achievement in uncovering more sections of the map.
It felt like playing Red Alert, where he especially enjoyed revealing all the dark, unexplored areas around the map.
However, after checking his wealth points, Ron dismissed the idea.
Although he had unknowingly accumulated several hundred thousand wealth points, the system's ability to drain money through research upgrades was equally impressive.
The breeding space and spatial transmission permissions were each more expensive than the last, making it impossible for him to keep spending lavishly in a short period of time.
After all, connecting the spatial transmission channel for a single-branch shop required a one-time cost of 200,000 wealth points.
Even though he had recently signed contracts with many factions in the Royal Capital, it would still take time for the funds to circulate back.
Not to mention, he had already spent 200,000 wealth points to grant sub-permissions to Nora, Sylvie, Yuna, and Guy, causing his wealth points to shrink drastically.
So the matter of opening new branches would have to wait.
For now, his top priority was to complete the main quest [Sell Element Card] as soon as possible.
As Ron thought about this, the carriage slowly stopped in front of the magic academy.
He stepped out, walked into the academy, and headed straight for Harper's laboratory.
"Harper, long time no see," Ron greeted after knocking on the door.
Harper raised his head from a pile of test tubes. Standing on a small stool due to his short stature, he looked rather comical.
"Oh, Ron… you're back from the Royal Capital?"
"Yeah, more or less. About the matter I asked you to research earlier—any progress?"
"…Hold on a moment." Harper jumped down from the stool and rummaged through a stack of documents. "The Scalevine you brought before—I basically finished researching it at the end of December."
He handed a paper to Ron.
"You always manage to bring out astonishing plants. If I were more interested in healing-related research, I would've definitely continued studying it further."
"Of course, it also has something to do with the fact that I've already used up all the Scalevine you gave me. But the basic research is complete—you can take a look."
Ron accepted the paper and began flipping through it while Harper continued explaining beside him.
"This plant's healing ability is extremely comprehensive. Whether it's external injuries, internal injuries, frostbite, burns, or toxins—it can heal all of them."
"Except for mental damage, it's practically universal. The only issue is that it's not very convenient to preserve."
"If it isn't stored in a special container like the ones in my laboratory, it will gradually wither within ten days after being picked. And as time passes, its healing effectiveness decreases linearly."
"If you want to improve that, the best approach would be to use it as the main ingredient to produce a healing potion."